


Keep Me Hanging On

by noice_smort



Category: Glee
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-12 00:20:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29126358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noice_smort/pseuds/noice_smort
Summary: Nothing seems to be going right for Quinn Fabray during high school: she get's pregnant and kicked out by her parents, has a baby girl that she has to give up, her mothers an alcoholic, her sister hates her and she hasn't seen her dad in a year and now she has cancer. Follow Quinn as she tries to navigate her very new relationship with fellow Glee Club Member Tina-Cohen Chang and a cancer diganosis all at age 16.
Relationships: Blaine Anderson/Kurt Hummel, Carole Hudson-Hummel/Burt Hummel, Quinn Fabray & Finn Hudson, Quinn Fabray & Kurt Hummel, Rachel Berry/Finn Hudson, Tina Cohen-Chang/Quinn Fabray





	Keep Me Hanging On

Quinn Fabray's high school career just couldn't seem to go right after getting pregnant by sleeping with Puck, she then proceeded to get kicked out of her home and was effectively homeless for the remainder of her sophomore year homeless and bouncing between homes, then she gave birth and gave her baby, the one perfect thing in her life up for adoption and was asked to move him by her mother was struggling with an alcohol addiction and going watching her parents go through a messy divorce. To cap all that off several days ago she had been diagnosed with AML or Acute Myeloid Leukemia which had been an absolutely crushing blow. The doctors had said her chances of survival were good as she was young and healthy and they had fortunately caught it relatively early but that didn't stop Quinn from being absolutely terrified. The only good thing that seemed to have come out of this had been that her mother had taken it as a wake up call, after sitting in the hospital and hearing that her youngest daughter had cancer Judy had sworn that she was going to work on getting sober and that she would do her best to be their for Quinn. And so far Judy had kept her promise and had been at the hospital with Quinn for all her doctors appointments and her surgery to get her central line put in and had been talking to counselors about an AA program to go to.

Unfortunately for Quinn though her luck had essentially run out when counselors recommended that Judy go to an inpatient program because of the severity of the situation with Quinn and the duration of her drinking problems, if Judy was going to get sober she was going to need to be away from all temptations and stressors to give her the best chance at recovery. They mother daughter duo had had an emotional conversation and had agreed to that the best option for was for Judy to do the inpatient program and the night before Judy shipped out which unfortunately happened to be the night before Quinn's first chemo appointment cleaned out all the alcohol and waited for Frannie to come down so that way she could take care of Quinn. Judy had given Quinn a hug and reminded Frannie that she needed to take care of Quinn and be mindful of what was going on with the treatments and to call the center and give updates. Once Judy drove off however so did Frannie, ever since Quinn's pregnancy and their parents subsequent divorce Quinn's sister had taken the side of their father and tended to hold Quinn responsible for everything that had happened to their "perfect" family over the past year. So that's how Quinn found herself driving herself to Lima General for her first chemo appointment alone and terrified out of her mind. Quinn hadn't been surprised by Frannie's desire to leave and she was thrilled that her mom was finally getting help and could hopefully overcome her addiction but in this moment she longed to have any kind of familial support.

Carole Hudson had been a nurse in the pediatric wing of Lime General Hospital since her husband had died and she had had to go back to school so she could find a job to support her and Finn. She had always loved kids and had always wanted to help people, she knew that nursing paid well enough and she would need to be able to support her and Finn on her own. She was on her lunch break when one of the nurses from the oncology section of the unit, she had assumed she would be asked to come down and help because they were short staffed or if one of their non cancer patients would be moved to the oncology center because they needed cancer like treatments. What she didn’t expect was to be asked if she knew a Quinn Fabray. Carole Hudson had had an interesting relationship with Quinn, she had been her sons girlfriend and she had always been polite and nothing but a model girlfriend anytime she saw Quinn, though she was well aware of her son and his ex girlfriends issues, and had stayed with them for a period of time and was overly apologetic and did her best to help around the house even though Carole had assured her that she wasn’t required to. Thmen she found out that Finn wasn’t the babys dad and Carole had been relieved she heard Quinn explain to Finn what had happened and it certainly sounded like Quinn had intended to cheat let alone have sex with Puck and had she known early she would have tried to get more out of Quinn about that night because from what it sounded like to her Quinn never consented and that certainly raised red flags. In the few times she had seen Quinn since she had moved out the girl had always been overly apologetic and had offered to not come over her house when Kurt invited her over to not come to her wedding if she felt like it would be awkward to have her there. Quinn was a complex kid who had had a lot of stuff happen to her in the last year and if Carole was being honest potentially the last several years because ever since the family had moved to Lima she had some questionable things about them and how they treated their kids. Overall she thought that Quinn was a good kid and had grown up in a questionable environment and was trying to be a better person but didn’t necessarily know how to. She felt her heart drop at hearing that Quinn was sitting alone in the oncology wing receiving her first dose of chemotherapy and that the nurses were looking for someone to sit with her. Apparently they had remembered last year when she had mentioned that her son's girlfriend was pregnant and now living with them and asked if she would be willing to go sit with Quinn so that way she wasn’t alone. Carole immediately agreed and let the nurse lead her down towards the oncology wing.

“Hey Quinn, some of the nurses came and found me and told me you were and I thought I’d give you a little company.” Carole smiled sadly as she took in Quinn’s form, you wouldn’t know she was sick if it weren’t for the tubes from her central line poking out from the top of her tee-shirt, other than that she was just sitting up in bed reading a book.

“Hi Mrs. Hudson, I know you’re at work you don’t have to sit with me, I’ll be ok on my own.” Quinn told her looking up from her book.

“I don’t mind sweetheart, I would much rather get paid to sit here with you then check new patients in.” She took a set next to Quinn’s bed.

“I really don’t mind, I’m sure you don’t want to just sit here with me while I have chemo. It’s going to be pretty boring.”

“Well someones got to keep you company so you don’t get bored.” Carole joked, getting a small smile out of Quinn, “so the nurses told me that your here alone, wanna tell me where your mom is?”

“Inpatient rehab, after she found out that I was sick she started talking to someone about getting sober for real you know, and with everything going on we all agreed that she should go to inpatient so that way she wouldn’t relapse with everything going on.” Quinn explained, normally she was reserved about what was going on in her personal life but Mrs. Hudson already knew she had cancer and there wasn’t much that was more personal then that.

“I’m glad she’s getting sober, I imagine she didn’t leave you at home by yourself so who’s supposed to be taking care of you.” Carole was glad honestly that Judy was getting sober, she knew that Quinn needed some kind of stable adult presence in her life and after everything that happened with her parents last year she thought that this might help her out.

“My sister was to take care of me, but she agrees with my dad that I’m the cause for my parents divorce because I turned to sin or something stupid like that. She pretty much left as soon as my mom was gone and said I could figure it out for myself so here I am.” Carole felt her heart break, after getting her mom back just to have her sister drop her because she misguidedly blamed Quinn for her father’s cheating and parents ' subsequent divorce.

“Do you mind if I step out for a minute and call Burt?” Carole asked suddenly, she knew that Quinn was going to be going home alone after this and she just couldn’t let Quinn try and go through another thing on her own. If she was going to get through this she was going to need support and that was something her family could offer.

“Sure, I don’t mind?” Quinn responded confused, she had already told Mrs. Hudson could leave if she wanted to. Why did she feel the need to ask her if she could step out and call her husband. Was this how normal parents acted she wondered.

“I’ll be back in a minute alright, call out if you need anything.” Carole told her, putting her hand on the young teen’s arm. She hurried back towards the break room so that way she could grab her phone, she didn’t want to leave Quinn alone for long as she knew how quickly it would take for the medication to hit. Once she had it she headed back towards Quinn’s room, standing just outside the door so that way she could hear if something happened.

“Hey Carole what’s up, I’m at the store picking up dinner. Need anything?” Burt asked, he was always happy to hear from his wife, he was a little surprised she had called him while at work but happy nonetheless.

“Well I’m going to need you to buy food for four people now that you mention it, specifically things like crackers and ginger ale, things that are light on the stomach. Then when you get home I need you to make sure the guest room is set up.”

“Umm sure, are we having company that I didn’t know about?” Burt always considered himself to be pretty good about remembering dates and events that involved friends and family coming over but right now he was drawing a blank.

“No, Quinn Fabray apparently just got diagnosed with AML and her moms in rehab and because of her issues from last year her sister and father don’t want anything to do with her.” Carole explained, peaking into the room once again to make sure everything was ok. “We have to help her Burt, we can’t just leave her on her own until her mom finishes rehab.”  
“Of course we can take her in, I’ll set up the room when I get home and I’ll let the boys know what’s going on.”

“I’m so sorry for springing this on you, some nurses from the peds oncology unit found me and told me what was going on and I just had to help.” Carole really was so thankful for her husband, there weren’t many men who you could spring taking in a 16 year old and they would be completely ok with it.

“I know Carole. I love you and I’ll see you when you two get home.” Burt smiled hanging up, it looked like he had a lot more shopping to do.

She put her phone back in her purse and walked back into Quinn’s room and smiled softly at the sight of the teenager sound asleep in the recliner with a blanket tucked around her. She sat down next to the recliner where Quinn was snoozing, readjusted the blanket and started making a list of everything that she would need to take care of a sixteen year old cancer patient that she didn’t know much about.

At around four in the afternoon the nurse who had been coming in and out all afternoon let Carole know that she was going to be disconnecting Quinn from her chemo soon and that she would be free to go once she had been disconnected and checked over one more time by a doctor. Carole smiled and thanked the nurse before turning back to the sleeping teen.

“Quinn, sweetheart, I need you to wake up. The nurses are coming in and you’re going to have to go soon.” Carole said slightly shaking the girl hoping to rouse her from her sleep.

“Mmmm five more minutes” Quinn groaned, rolling over and pulling the blanket tighter around her, she didn’t remember being this cold when she fell asleep before.

“Come on you gotta get up, the doctor’s are gonna come back here in a minute to disconnect you and they're gonna need to talk to you.” Carole explained, as she watched Quinn pout and pull herself up into a sitting position.

“Thank you so much for sitting with me today. It really meant a lot to me, I know I fell asleep and I hope I didn’t bore you too much.”

“It’s no problem sweetheart I was happy to sit with you, plus like I said it’s much better to get paid to sit with you rather than to check in and do patient work ups.”

“Uhh, I have no idea how I’m going to drive forward after this, I’m so tired and I just want to go to bed.”

“You certainly aren’t driving home after this Quinn, outside of the fact that you’re exhausted, you were on some pretty heavy drugs and aren’t allowed to drive afterwards.” Carole informed her that got Quinn’s attention.

“Then how am I supposed to get home, I don’t have money for the bus, does the bus even come to the hospital?” Quinn started rambling.

“Sweetheart I’m going to take you to your house where your gonna pack some stuff and then I’m going to take you back to my house.” Carole explained, putting a hand on Quinn’s shoulder hoping to placate the girl.

“You don’t need to do that Mrs. Hudson, you already spent all of your afternoon with me, I’ll be fine on my own. I can take care of myself.”

“Quinn cancer is a very difficult disease to fight and you are going to need all the help you can get. I already ran it by Burt and he’s setting up the guest room and letting the boys know. It’ll be fine, you’re a kid and you shouldn’t be worrying about adult problems yet. Ok?”

“Ok.” Quinn sighed, in such a short amount of time she felt like her life had changed so much, and that was without counting the cancer diagnosis. Between her mom getting sober and having Mrs. Hudson sit with her and she couldn’t remember the last time she had so much parental support. The nurse came in a few minutes later and made quick work of disconnecting Quinn from the different machines and medication she lines she had been hooked up to. After checking and making sure that Quinn’s vitals were ok and giving some pamphlets and medication scripts to Carole the pair were on their way.

Lima General was just on the outskirts of town and by the time they had made it within the center of town Quinn was passed out in the passenger seat with her head leaning on the window. Carole decided to stop at the pharmacy to pick up Quinn’s medication first, so that way the teen could sleep for a little while longer. She watched as the pharmacist gave her a sad smile as she put all of the medications in the bag, she knew that Quinn’s name was on the medication and that people certainly knew she wasn’t Judy Fabray and she hoped that the woman wouldn’t ask her about it. Fortunately the woman didn’t and Carole was free to return to her car without much of a fuss, Quinn barely even stirring as she accidentally slammed the car door.

Lima was essentially split into three sections, the wealthy, the middle class and the poor. Carole and Burt had both lived in the middle class part of the town for most of their lives and had felt no desire to ever try to buy a house in the richer part of town. There was something about that side of town that just felt so cold and fake and she could not wait to get Quinn back to her house that felt warm and cozy and homely, she couldn’t help but wonder if the cold and perfect standards of the wealthier part of Lima let alone her own parents had caused Quinn to become the way she was. According to Kurt and to what she had seen when Quinn briefly lived with them last year she was working to try and shed the HBIC attitude and become a better person. They finally pulled up the Fabray house (read mansion) and Carole really didn’t have the heart to wake Quinn up because she looked so comfortable, but she didn’t know way around her house and she wouldn’t even know where to start in terms of what to get for Quinn so she lightly shook the teens arm trying to wake her up.

“Quinn...Quinn...you need to wake up sweetheart, we’re at your house and we need to go inside so we can get your stuff.” Carole whispered

“Mmm it’s fine Mrs. Hudson you can just leave me here.” Quinn yawned, pushing herself up and trying to rub the sleep from her eyes.

“Sweetheart we went over this you need somebody to help take care of you, cancer treatments can be really grueling and as a parent I couldn’t stand to leave you alone. So come on we're going to go inside and pack some of your stuff up and then I’m taking you back to my house where you are going to rest.”

Quinn sighed and recognized that there was no use in fighting Mrs.Hudson and getting to her house where she could rest sounded great right now, she figured that they’d get sick of her soon enough and she’d be back at home at some point anyway. She went to her backpack and grabbed her keys out so that way she could let them inside. She hated her house, absolutely hated it, ever since she had essentially couch surfed during the duration of her pregnancy she realized that her home wasn’t actually a home. It was a house were four people lived in and kept appearances even in the comfort of their own home, after all the Fabray’s were supposed to be the perfect family even when no one was watching. The first time she had stayed with the Hudson’s and Carole and Finn didn’t just hold pleasant conversation, they talked, like actually talked, about their days and they would play music and everything just seems so light. Quinn had had to step away and cry in the bathroom because she didn’t realize that she wasn’t supposed to feel so afraid all of the time.

She told Carol to make herself at home while she went upstairs together some of her stuff. She grabbed her cheerios duffle out from under bed and threw in her casual clothes that she wasn’t allowed to wear outside of the house when her father still lived with them and were slowly being phased in as her mother tried to break some of the strict rules Russel had implemented. After packing her clothes she grabbed some books off her shelves that she wanted to bring with her, she had been bored out of her mind at chemo today and she was going to need something while she was sitting there hooked up to an IV for several hours at a time. As she looked around her room to see if she needed to grab anything else she saw her lamb sitting in the center of her bed, she sat down and ran her hands over the soft fur as felt tears springing to her eyes and for the first time since she got diagnosed Quinn let herself cry.

Downstairs Carol was sitting on the couch getting ready talking to Judy Fabray, after what happened with Quinn’s sister and Quinn coming to stay with them, she figured it would be best if she told Judy what she intended on doing with Quinn because someone had to tell the older blonde what was going on. Judy had been very apologetic on the phone for what had happened to Quinn the year prior and promised to wire money over so that way she could help supplement them taking care of Quinn and while Carol refused, Judy was insistent. She could hear in the older woman’s voice that she didn’t feel well and the withdrawal symptoms were starting to hit her. She asked if Judy had wanted to speak to Quinn but was quickly told no, Judy didn’t need her daughter worrying about her on top of everything else she was going through. Judy promised to talk to the doctor about being able to call Quinn when the symptoms had calmed down and she was feeling better. The conversation didn’t last much longer after that with Judy thanking Carol again and Carol saying that she would bring Quinn up the facilities when both of them were feeling better. Just as she was hanging up the phone she saw Quinn coming down the stairs with her Cheerios duffle bag slung over her shoulder, a sight she had seen many times over the duration of her relationship with Finn.

“Are you ready to go back to my house and have some dinner?” Carol asked, putting her hand on Quinn’s shoulder.

“Yeah, plus I feel like I could sleep for a week.” Quinn told her trying to stifle a yawn.

“Well we don’t want you falling asleep before we get some dinner in you, so let's head out.”

The car ride back to the Hummel-Hudson residence felt much less tense then the one between the hospital and the Fabray house. Quinn seemed noticeably lighter and was actually able to keep up and engage in conversation now and Carol felt much less stressed about Quinn’s whole situation. Soon they reached the other side of town and they were pulling into the driveway.

Quinn had stayed with Carol before and had been over to the house a number of times since she had joined Glee club, but something felt different about this. She knew that Burt was a nice man and nothing like her father and that no one minded that she was going to be staying with them for a while. She grabbed her duffle bag and her backpack from the backseat and walked with Carol inside, where she was immediately met by Burt and Finn.

“Here give Finn your duffle and your backpack and he’ll bring them down to the guest room. That’s were Kurt is, he said we couldn’t have you living in a blank room or something like that. I know you’ve had a long day and dinners almost done so why don’t make yourself comfortable on the couch.” Burt told her, handing a bag to Finn.

Quinn went to argue with the man trying to explain that she could carry her bag down a flight of stairs but neither him or Carol were having any of it. So Quinn surrendered and went to sit down in the living room. For the first time in several hours she finally felt like she could breathe again, she had made it through her first chemo treatment, she wasn’t going to have to worry about fending for herself and in all honesty she didn’t feel too bad so she was considering the day a win given the circumstances. She felt her phone buzz in her pocket and then she realized she hadn’t checked it for most of the day. She received a call from the facility her mother was staying in and then several text messages and a voicemail from Tina. The pair had started going out only a couple of weeks ago and they were keeping it on the downlow. Neither were really ready to be out and Quinn was still working on some internalized homophobia. She went to call her girlfriend back before stopping and realizing that she hadn’t actually told Tina that she had cancer yet, in fact the only people that knew outside her immediate family were the Hummel-Hudson’s and that’s because she was staying with them. Quinn Fabray was not good with emotional conversations and she sure as hell didn’t know how she was going to handle this one.


End file.
